Taken together an extramarital affair, secret cash payments, a multi-million-dollar property and courts in two countries could be the ingredients for an international spy thriller.
In reality, they’re the elements of an unusual civil case heading to the B.C. Supreme Court.
At the core of the lawsuit is a claim by Ci Huang, a retiree living in China, that her husband secretly transferred about $4.6 million to an alleged mistress in B.C., which the woman then used to buy a house in Burnaby.
According to a notice of civil claim filed Aug. 17, Ci Huang says she wants B.C. courts to enforce a judgement she already won in the matter in the Chongchuan District People’s Court in Nantong City in May.
Ci Huang and her husband Xing Huang have been married since 1996. In 2014 Xing met 22-year-old Danni Zhu, the suit claims, and he struck up an affair with her the following year, which lasted until September 2022, when Ci discovered his infidelity.
At the same time, the suit alleges she also discovered Xing Huang had funneled cash from the family’s joint savings to Zhu via multiple transactions through intermediaries between 2016 and 2018.
About three weeks after Zhu recieved the first payment of approximately $800,000, she obtained a mortgage and was listed as the registered owner for a two-storey house on Burnaby’s Hersham Avenue, the suit claims. BC Assessment lists the property’s value at just under $3.13 million.
Subsequent cash transfers were used to pay the home’s mortgage, the suit alleges.
In January 2022, Ci Huang filed a lawsuit in Chinese court. During the hearings, her husband admitted to transferring the cash, the suit claims.
“Mr. Huang acknowledged that he transferred the converted funds, which he submitted were joint family savings, to Ms. Zhu without Mrs. Huang’s knowledge or consent,” the suit alleges.
“Despite Mrs. Huang’s claim and Mr. Huang’s admissions, Ms. Zhu disputed that she was gifted the funds.”
The suit goes on to allege that the Chinese court ruled in Ci Huang’s favour, ordering Zhu to repay the funds plus interest, but that Zhu has not returned the money and is appealing the case.
Ci Huang is seeking a court order for the return of the funds, along with interest, as well as orders placing the home under her control as well as a declaration Zhu was “unjustly enriched.”
None of the claims have been proven in court, and Zhu has yet to file her response to the civil claim.